The invention relates to systems for collecting and transmitting medical and health-related data over a network.
The healthcare industry is the largest sector of this nation""s economy, comprising over one trillion dollars, or roughly 13% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Because of increasing healthcare costs, it is desirable to reduce overhead, free hospitals beds, and increase compliance with treatment. Remote medical data monitoring devices are directed precisely at those goals.
Accordingly, advances in healthcare and medical devices are increasingly required to meets the needs of an aging population. For example, medical industry experts predict that the demand for medical data monitoring systems will drastically increase over the next decade. Existing monitoring systems, however, fall short of satisfying customers"" needs in several ways.
Some remote monitoring systems have been designed to allow patients to transmit their medical data from their homes. An example of one such monitoring system provides a measuring device, such as a blood sugar monitor, which a patient uses to measure a physiological attribute. The patient then enters the measurements taken by the device into the monitoring system, which transmits the data over phone lines or the Internet. Obvious drawbacks of this system are reliability of data and ease of use. Due to human error, users will sometimes enter incorrect data. Because it is not connected to the measuring device, the monitoring system is incapable of detecting or correcting the error, and the database is therefore corrupted. Further, it is inconvenient, and perhaps difficult for some users, to manually enter data. Other existing devices are inadequate because they are not easily expanded, cannot work with multiple users or devices, or are encumbered by physical wire connections.
Accordingly, a system for collecting and transmitting medical and health-related data over a network is provided. In one preferred embodiment, the system comprises a measuring device that measures a physiological attribute and produces a first signal related thereto, an integration system coupled to the measuring device that receives the first signal from the measuring device and converts it into a second signal for transmitting over the Internet, a communications system that transmits the second signal over the Internet, and a remote system that receives the second signal. In accordance with one aspect of the preferred embodiment, the integration system is adapted to read the first signal as it is sent from the measuring device to its display. In accordance with one aspect of the preferred embodiment, the remote system extracts the measured physiological attribute from the second signal and populates a database with that data. In accordance with another aspect of the preferred embodiment, a web-based portal is provided for accessing the database over the Internet.
In another preferred embodiment, a method is disclosed for collecting and transmitting medical and health-related data over a network. The method includes the steps of collecting the data by sensing an electrical signal from a measuring device, converting the electrical signal for transmitting over the network, and transmitting the data to a remote system.
In another preferred embodiment, several measuring devices are adapted to measure physiological attributes and produce corresponding signals relating thereto, an integration system receives the signals and converts them into a format that a communications system transmits over the network, and a remote system coupled to the network receives the data. In accordance with one aspect of the preferred embodiment, the signals include unique user identifiers that associate each datum with an individual user, thereby allowing the system to maintain data for multiple users and multiple devices.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent from consideration of the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.